WLRN is looking at the impact of children and teens killed by guns in South Florida through the voices of some of the people who are most affected.
You can find the entire series atwlrn.org/ownwords
Tequila Forshee was 12 years old when she was killed inside her grandmother's Miami Gardens home on Aug. 14, 2013.
Bullets ripped through the living room walls and windows striking Tequila as she was getting her hair braided.
Her murder remains unsolved three years later. The vibrant girl who was better known as "Tee-Tee" dreamed of becoming a chef and police detective. She would have celebrated her birthday 16th birthday on Saturday, Sept. 24.
Tequila's father, Glenn Forshee, still lives in the Miami Gardens neighborhood where she was killed and he talked to WLRN's Nadege Green about losing his daughter to gun violence and struggling to go on.
Press the triangle to hear the story:
An excerpt of the conversation with Glenn Forshee:
I always thought, "I never wanted to lose my sons to no ignorance, no violence and I definitely don’t want to lose my sons to the system."
Those were the scares when it comes down to losing one of my kids. Those were the scares in my head.
Losing my daughter to a gunshot? Far from my mind. I never would have thought that in a million billion years.
You can’t really prepare yourself for that stuff right there. Losing a child. That’s hard. It’s really difficult not to go off the deep end and lose your mind.
She died in August. I don’t even want to say that word, the word sounds so hard. She passed away in August.
Her birthday is in September so it was just before her birthday. I was going to take her to the salon on a daddy’ daughter little outing on her birthday. Get her nails done and buy her a chain and bracelet set with the matching earrings.
I remember reading inside the Miami Herald how I approached the coffin and with me trying to fight back tears; the father of Tequila Forsheewas able to place the crown on her head.
People approach me in stores. You don’t want to be rude because you appreciate the fact that people still remember and that people are still concerned. I really, really appreciate that. But just imagine being in the middle of your day, you already got to deal with the daily struggle and the business of life and in the midst of that you’re in the grocery store picking groceries for your kids and you happen to bump into somebody from the community that remembers your child’s story.
They just want to know how you’re doing. Did they ever catch the people who did this? You know where it’s going so you just kind of want to s keep the conversation short. That’s just how I cope with it. If not, I might have a breakdown right there in the middle of Wal-mart and not finish grocery shopping .
My daughter's killers are still out there. The police know, everybody know --it’s just a matter of having enough evidence.
I got to be able to move on day by day. I’m still taking care of three other kids. Sometimes I get caught up on Tequila. I think about her all the time.
Tequila is wrapped up in my everyday living since this happened. It’s truth in the fact that you got to keep the story ringing in people’s ears. I know I have to do that as a father.
